It is BOKO HARAM. It is the Islamic group that recently took credit for the Christmas day bombings in Nigeria. The group is looking to establish a shariah government in that country, but they could get in here—into the US.
Recently I picked up the December issue of Government Security News on my kitchen table and noticed this story (below). Turns out that there were hearings in the US House of Representatives on Boko Haram with an emphasis on the possibility that they could be in the US.
Everybody knows Al Qaeda by now, and readers of RRW surely know the name Al Shabaab (or Shabab), so here is a new African Islamic supremacist group:
The Nigerian Islamist sect that bombed the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital on Aug. 26, killing more than 20, could bring its terror tactics to the US, warned a report from members of the House Homeland Security Committee and its counterterrorism subcommittee.
The report, issued by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, said Boko Haram could be the next face of terror in the U.S. Their report, issued following a House hearing on the group, said it has quickly evolved and “poses an emerging threat” to the US homeland and interests. They requested the State Department to investigate classifying it as a terror group, saying it could be working with Al Qaeda affiliates in Algeria and Al Shabaab in Nigeria to develop and coordinate on operational plans.
Boko Haram Islamists want to create a Sharia-only nation in northern Nigeria and ignore Nigeria’s constitution and the country’s President Goodluck Jonathan. They also believe western education and any product of it are blasphemous. Experts on the group say the name “Boko Haram” is a rough combination of Arabic and Nigerian words that mean “western education is a sin.”
And, then I note in this report on the hearings, that the report urges the intelligence community to begin work in the Nigerian diaspora in the US. I guess they now realize they were asleep at the switch as Al Shabaab recruited in the US Somali “community” about 5 years ago.
Conduct outreach with Nigerian Diaspora communities in the United States: The US government should develop relationships with Nigerian Diaspora communities in the United States to learn more about Boko Haram and the factors driving its evolution, intent, capability, and targeting. Through familial and personal relationships, Diaspora communities in the United States provide a unique and invaluable perspective on their home country.
So far we aren’t taking Nigerian refugees (that we have been told!), but plenty get into the US through the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, here (6000 in 2011).
I’m sure you will be hearing much more about BOKO HARAM!